What Would You Name Our Daughter?
by DoctorTheTwitch
Summary: Magnus asks and Alec answers. One-Shot.


"Magnus, we're not naming our daughter Magenta Peach Glitterificus III." Alec didn't look up from the book he was reading as Magnus leaned over his shoulder, pouting.

"Why not?" Alec looked at him. Magnus straightened up, crossing his arms and walking around the couch to stand in front of his boyfriend. "Well, what would you name our daughter?"

As a reflex, Alec replied, "Maxandria," and looked back to his book, burying himself a little deeper into the pages to hide the blush spreading to his cheeks. He hadn't meant for Magnus to know about Maxandria. It was silent in the comfortable flat they shared and Alec was eventually forced to look up from the book he was only pretending to read. Magnus had relaxed his arms, hands hanging limply at his sides. The pout was gone and replaced with a look of solemn questioning.

Moving to sit next to Alec, Magnus gently pulled the book from his hands. "I sense a story." Cat eyes searched blue for a moment before Alec sighed. There was no way he could get out of explaining himself, it seemed.

"I put some thought into what I would name our daughter if we ever had children," the look on Magnus' face held a barely concealed "no duh", but the warlock remained a polite listener. "And I thought Maxandria sounded nice." Alec finished quickly, looking down at his tightly laced fingers.

Long, ring laden fingers wrapped around Alec's tense hands, loosening the tight grip Alec had on himself. Alec looked up as he felt a hand on his cheek, gazing into the startling eyes full of the love and wisdom he'd come to associate with his Magnus. "Alec...this wouldn't have to do with your brother, would it?"

Alec nearly laughed. How could it not be about his brother? "Yeah. It has to do with Max."

Magnus waited for Alec to go on, but when it was apparent that he wasn't, "May I inquire as to how this relates to him?"

"You mean other than me wanting to honor my dead brother's memory by naming my child after him?" He knew the words stung from how the corners of Magnus' mouth tightened just the tiniest bit. Alec didn't mean to hurt him, but really, it was fairly obvious. But it wasn't the whole story. Magnus was silent for a while, not moving or retracting from Alec. He knew there was more that Alec wasn't telling him. Sighing again in defeat, Alec looked away from the warlock's intense gaze.

"Do you know the reason I kissed you in the Accords Hall before the battle?"

"You simply couldn't resist any longer?" Magnus smiled a bit, but Alec couldn't return it.

"It was all coming into perspective for me. We were going to fight for our families, our lives. It was acknowledged that many would die in the battle, and all I could think about was what I would be leaving behind." Alec took a deep breath. He'd never said the words out loud before, but now that he was saying them they felt like they should have been said long ago. "All my family would be fighting, risking their lives. I'd already lost my little brother. All I could think was that I couldn't stand to lose you too."

When Magnus was quiet, Alec continued, rushing a little as he felt his face grow hot. "Afterwards I was daydreaming, thinking about what it would be like if we adopted...then I remembered Max and if I ever would have had the courage alone..." Magnus wiped away the tears in silence as they fell. Max would always be hard to talk about no matter how much time passed. "I know it's horrible to think that if he hadn't died- that his death caused anything good, but I can't help but feel that he was what pushed me, in the end."

The wavering blue of Alec's eyes made Magnus want to start crying himself. Magnus began slowly, hesitant that he would hurt Alec more, "And he never even got to see his older brother be who he really was." Nodding Alec leaned forward to rest his head on Magnus' shoulder as Magnus wrapped his arms around the boy that could be so fierce and so fragile. His voice was muffled by the fabric of Magnus' shirt as Alec spoke.

"I only wish I could have shown him that no matter who he was, no matter how hard things got...there would always be people there to love him."

They stayed quiet for a long time, taking comfort in the other's embrace. It was Magnus who broke the silence.

"You say daughter specifically..."

"It would be too painful to have a little boy named Max running around." Alec's voice was surprisingly steady, and Magnus leaned away a bit to look at him. The Shadowhunter's eyes were red-rimmed but held a strong conviction that had only been hinted at before. "So, if we were to have a daughter, I'd want to name her Maxandria. Maxandria Bane."

Magnus' face broke into a smile like the sun breaks across the horizon. This was not something he'd expected from his Alexander. Whenever the topic of children had been brought up by others he'd never expressed a large preference either way, but seeing him now, Magnus could tell how much he wanted to be a father.

"Should we start looking into our adoption options? Or is surrogacy the route we want to take?" Magnus couldn't stop smiling, especially since Alec had let himself smile again, face flushed to the perfect pink shade Magnus adored.

"You'd really have a baby with me?" Alec asked, incredulity coloring his tone.

"Well, Alexander, we can try all we want, but think we'd need a third party to bring an actual child into existence." Alec's face reddened further, but he didn't let himself get distracted. Leaning his forehead against Magnus' he felt completely different tears welling in the corners of his eyes.

"Thank you, Magnus Bane."

"I love you, too, Alexander."

A/N: Just a sweet little idea that popped into my head. No connection with "Unexpected". Reviews are welcome. :)


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